Higher MPG and No Excessive Transmission Shifting

... and I still don't understand the haters. There are probably a couple hundred threads that pop up on here every day. It's pretty easy for me to stay out of the one's that don't interest me.

 

images are from Tech Pkg. Truck can and does get good mileage. This is from way to work this morning. As soon as I got on hi way, I reset current mileage and left it alone for 50 miles. Suspect since they all have same engine and transmission, they're all capable depending on how truck is driven.

 

70 has been the sweet spot for me. The problem area is between 75-82ish. It runs high revs and never feels comfortable with its gear selection.

I typically like to stay at 80 on the highway... so it has been a lesson in patience to stay at 70.

 

55 to 60 mph nets gas mileage closer to the advertised numbers for hwy. However very seldom do interstates and highway speeds allow for drivers to coast along at 15 to 20 mph under the speed limit here in AZ. Sure you can but then you have people zipping around you, abrupt lane changes and aggressive drivers shooting the gap to get the hell away from your slow driving ass. The risks have to be considered.

 

Very strange intricacies built into this vehicle related to transmission, engine, and computer. I know.. nothing like stating the obvious. But I had my longest freeway drive today which revealed even more oddities. Getting on the highway at first it was dogging and it seemed like I had to floor it to keep up with others. If I tried to gas it what I would call normally to get to the next gear down to get a little "umph", it was acting "funny". I can't put my finger on it. It was as if the engine was getting in the way of itself. RPMs went up, but it translated into slowing down, rather than speeding up. I could feel a drag on the vehicle. I'd liken it to downhill decent speed control almost, except I was on a relatively flat on-ramp and then on the highway only slight hills, mostly what I would call flat. So I was trying a few different things. I tried switching to neutral and noticed the dragging effect from the engine went away. It was easier to coast than to get power. Of course I could step on it and force it to pick up more power, but it was killing my mileage. Just to keep up with others, I could see I was going to average about 12 MPG on the highway when I was recently getting about 17 - 20 mpg driving around the city. How can this be?

Then I tried something else. I started babying it. Using the feather foot. And guess what? The engine and transmission started to improve performance. Suddenly it was easier to keep with the other cars, but still took a lot of RPMs to pass. However my MPGs started climbing and the active display was showing me at nearly the top of the scale near 30- MPG most of the time. And when I got to hills, it only dropped slightly, and still kept enough power to stay with traffic and even gain on some other vehicles. I wonder if the new technology is designed to train you to drive in a certain way. It punishes you for lead footing it, and gives you a decent ride if you take it easy.

This may in the long run be great for daily and long distance driving. But one thing that kills the show is the processing it takes to figure out what to do when you want to punch it and get up and go. I tried just flooring it from about 40 MPH to see what it would do. LAAAAAGG. I think it took about 4 or 5 seconds to figure out what was going on before it finally realized I had just gunned it. Then it rocketed off. THAT... needs fixing.

 

Are you using the ECT button at all? It's not optimal, but I find myself toggling it on and off several times a day in my quest to get a good balance of performance and MPG. I'm only on tank 3, but I'm getting way better on this tank of gas by not going over 65-68 MPH on the interstate and accelerating SLOWWWWLY of the line from red lights. I hit ECT for merging, weaving through traffic, or anything else when I might need a "normal" response.

 

That is because EPA numbers are tested at 55MPH. Everyone wants to get the same MPG at 80MPH, it isn't going to happen.

 

I'd be happy with achieving posted MPGs at average interstate speeds -- 65 to 75 mph

 

I just had a 20 mile interstate trip and got 26 mpg while doing 65-70 mph (my best trip average yet on the interstate). I half-ass drafted a transfer truck for some of it, but I'm old and don't have my lightning quick reflexes so I didn't follow too closely. I'm not sure how much advantage it gave me. I'm at about sea level, with rolling hills, and ethanol free 87 octane gas. My city mileage is pretty average. My last tank was at 19.9 mpg. I think this one will be at 21 or so. I'm on fuely but this is only tank #3 so I was waiting for more data before posting it.

 

I use ECT rarely. I'm more inclined to use shift mode when I want to force it into a certain gear. Until they release new shift patterns (which probly won't be a huge change), I'm settling on shifting, doing my best to find the sweet spots, coasting when possible and drafting behind rigs when possible on highways. For off-road I'll probly use ECT or shift manually. You can't have fun if you're waiting for the computer to figure out what your doing. This is my first real off-road truck. I may eventually look for something older to get something that has true response and handling. This truck is gonna be like Off-Road for the Howell's.

 

Ethanol free gas probably a huge difference maker. But it's extremely hard to find realistically in most locations

 

Drove 50mph in no hurry on a nice day with little wind. I have alloy wheels "7 lbs lighter than steel wheels" and changed my oil early. I have the Hankook HT tires.

 

I got lucky in that regard, my local convenience store started carrying it because the local boaters demanded it.

 

How do you access "fuelly"?

 

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http://www.fuelly.com/

It's easy to make an account and super easy to log fill ups and keep extra data.

 

How do I bring this screen up?

 

APPS > ECO

 

I had a 2012 Tacoma 4.0 6 speed that would consistently get 19-20 mpg on a road trip averaging 75-80 mph and rarely ever needing to downshift from 6th gear for 1900 miles.

My current pos is a 2016 double cab limited automatic , on that same trip I averaged 16-17 mpg going the same speed . Not to mention that the transmission shifted several thousand times in 1900 miles .
If they would have made the tacomas with the 4.0 from the 4 runner it would have been a lot better choice